Facade of the Colegio de San Lorenzo. Image from Facebook account
MANILA, Philippines — Senator Raffy Tulfo is seeking a Senate inquiry into the permanent closure of Colegio de San Lorenzo in Quezon City.
In filing Senate Resolution no. 156, Tulfo said there is an urgent need for a probe on the “abrupt, reckless, indiscriminate and unceremonious” shut down of the school.
A copy of the resolution was furnished to the media on Friday.
According to the neophyte senator, an investigation should be done “in order to adopt necessary legislative measures that will provide sufficient legal guidelines to govern similar instances in the future and to impose reasonable and appropriate penalties and sanctions” to those culpable for the ceased operation of Colegio de San Lorenzo.
“The sudden permanent closure of Colegio de San Lorenzo … has caused extreme prejudice, physical, psychosocial, and mental anguish to both the students and parents,” he added.
The Colegio de San Lorenzo announced its permanent closure last August 15, the same day it was supposed to start classes for School Year (SY) 2022-2023.
The school management explained that the move was “due to the financial instability and lack of financial viability brought about by the ongoing pandemic and exacerbated by consistent low enrollment turnout over the past years.”
RJ Taganas, the director of school’s Office of the Student Affairs, said that Colegio de San Lorenzo only had more than 1,400 enrollees for both basic education and college – far below the school’s expectation of at least a thousand enrollees for elementary and high school and just more than half its college enrollees in the previous semester.
Taganas also said that for SY 2022-2023, only 783 enrolled for basic education while only 652 college students enrolled this semester, lower than the previous semester’s 1,060 enrollees.
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Students’ parents or guardians were later required to sign a waiver for their refund, but the school revoked the requirement following a backlash.